


Summertime Sadness

by MyWhiteKnight



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Badass Percy, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-24
Updated: 2017-12-24
Packaged: 2019-02-19 12:05:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,782
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13123377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MyWhiteKnight/pseuds/MyWhiteKnight
Summary: The gang reminisce about their summers, wherein everyone realizes that Percy and Annabeth’s idea of ‘normal’ and ‘fun’ vastly differs from the rest.





	Summertime Sadness

**Author's Note:**

> NOTE: I do not own Percy Jackson or the universe. If I did, he wouldn't have been as useless in the Heroes of Olympus. Just putting that out there.

“You know, I think my favorite part of summer were the legion cook-offs,” Jason sighed, a dreamy smile on his face. “Not that we ever did particularly well in those either, but gods the food.”

“There were food related traditions and no one told me?” Percy exclaimed, face comical with dismay. “Man, you Romans are holding out on me.”

“You mean your stomach,” Annabeth retorted, rolling her eyes.

“There’s a difference?” He quirked an eyebrow.

The room filled with laughter. They were sailing through a patch of clear air, happily chatting as they ate. Tension and fear took a back seat to the ‘getting to know you’ and genuine happiness of being on a quest. As night began to fall upon Camp, the bonfire and camp songs played around the walls of the mess hall, bringing forth the discussions of summer and food.

“Nah, you guys, if you want real food, and I mean ‘cook you for twenty hours and then die the happiest of meat-lover deaths as you melt in my mouth,’ you need to go for Texas brisket,” Leo chirped, delighted smile on his face.

“He has a point,” Piper added. “While there are other types of barbecue-“

“Shhh,” Leo hushed the daughter of Aphrodite with a hand over her mouth, “No need to spread such terrible, terrible lies. There is only Texas barbecue.”

Another round of chuckles and giggles filled the room.

“I miss it, sometimes, you know?” Percy sighed as he leaned back. “Before I found I out I am a demigod, we used to go to this cabin by the ocean for a week without stinky Gabe.”

“Where your mother would proceed to make you all sorts of blue food,” Annabeth smirked at the dreamy sigh on her boyfriend’s face. “I think my favorite summers were at Camp.”

“I forgot,” Piper gasped. “You were at Camp for a long time.”

Annabeth shrugged and leaned back. “I got there with Thalia and Luke when I was young. I barely remember what being home was like until a couple years ago.” 

“So, you were almost like us?” Hazel inquired, her head quirked to the side.

“I guess,” Annabeth slowly answered. “It’s different for Greeks. We don’t have a sheltered community to live our lives. If you’re a strong demigod, it’s dangerous for you to live outside of the protection of camp.” 

Everyone’s eyes turned to Percy in that moment.

“Why is everyone staring at me?” He asked, hands up.

“How many movie theaters have you wrecked by being in them?” Annabeth rose an eyebrow.

“Maybe a few,” Percy mumbled, “And the schools are totally not my fault! I did not ask for the kindly lady pre-algebra teacher or the cheerleaders from Tartarus or-“ 

“You’ve ruined that many schools?” Piper inquired, trying to hide her amused smirk.

“Ruined may be going a bit far,” Percy diplomatically reasoned.

“You set at least two on fire, and broke quite a bit of a third,” Annabeth deadpanned.

“Dude, you need to stop showing me up,” Leo exclaimed. “Fire and destruction is my area of expertise.”

“It got better once I started going to camp,” Percy shrugged, succumbing to amusement at the situation.

“What is Camp like during a normal summer?” Jason piped up from the back.

“It’s awesome,” Percy grinned. “There’s canoeing, which I am awesome at, and the pegasus riding. We have races, you know. Blackjack and I tend to win those.”

“Because you have an unfair advantage,” Annabeth rolled her eyes.

“It’s not my fault that I can talk to horses and fish,” Percy shrugged. “Playing fetch with Mrs. O’Leary is a ton of fun, too.”

“Who’s Mrs. O’Leary?” Frank asked from his spot beside Hazel.

“A giant hellhound that Daedalus domesticated. Kinda,” Piper answered. “She’s super sweet and very smart.”

“Yeah, I mean, sure, there are always a few weeks of soul crushing agony and life changing quests, but outside of that, summer at Camp is awesome,” Percy beamed.

“Soul crushing agony and life changing quests?” Hazel squeaked. “How is that fun?”

“It’s an adventure,” Percy gestured wide with his arms, eyes sparkling.

“Emphasis on agony,” Annabeth sighed.

“Come on, wise girl, you know if we didn’t go on those adventures we wouldn’t be who we are and where we are today,” Percy gave her a lopsided grin.

For a moment, everyone sat silent, watching Annabeth’s narrow, grey eyes assess the boy before her. The longer she sat in silence, the wider his grin grew and soon, Leo began to chuckle. As soon as the flood gates were open, more of the Argo II joined in. Percy swooped her into a tight hug, kissing her temple. 

“Fine, fine, you got me this time,” she relented with a grumble and slowly smiled.

“I’m sure the quests weren’t that bad,” Frank reasoned with a smile. “How could they be if you two are here together?”

Piper noticed the pair first, their stiff posture, the pained far away gazes, and the fact that they weren’t joining in with the good nature laughing and teasing going around the table. Jason mentioned that his one mission with the Legion, while hard, was not horrible. Even Leo added that, while stressful and difficult, he looked back on their quest together as a grand adventure.

“It’s not that bad, right?” Piper asked quietly, effectively silencing the rest of the crew.

“Define ‘not bad,’” Percy responded. “I know that to you, the Romans, the war against the Titans wasn’t a big thing.” He put his hand up as Jason began to protest. “Listen to me, I heard the stories from Reyna and the rest of the legion. It was not a big deal to you. As someone who lived through it from the Greek side, it was devastating. All of our summer quests had to do with the war.”

“But you guys made it back alive,” Leo restated, as if this simple truth would be enough.

“Just because we did,” Annabeth motioned towards Percy and herself. “Doesn’t mean that everyone survived. In fact, quite a few did not.”

“But the Titan war was hard on us as well,” Jason frowned. “We had to go out on normal raids to rid different areas of monsters, we often got inquired and lost a few of our number.”

“Did anyone defect?” Percy asked, voice hard.

“No, I don’t recall,” Jason began.

“Did you have spies or moles in the Legion?”

“Not that I know-“

“Did anyone offer to house a Titan in their own body, giving up their mortality and soul?”

“I-“

“Did you have to kill another demigod that you knew?”

Silence greeted this question. Shocked expressions answered the cold, unfeeling question thrown out by Percy. Sunny expression and sparkling eyes disappeared to be taken over by an unemotional mask and piercing gaze. Most of the crew sat, taken aback by the teen’s line of questioning. In a moment, their goofy glue-guy transformed into a fearsome, seasoned warrior. The hard edge of war and loss painted across his features resembled more a statue of some god than a teenager.

The idea of killing another demigod sickened most, hence their current quest to stop the war between the Greeks and Romans. Yet, the others thought that maybe the Titan war hadn’t been that bad. Adding to the fact that monsters were rising, and titans attacking everything they knew, having to kill someone you knew? Went to camp with at one time? Someone you trusted, but gave information to the enemy? The idea chilled and sobered the others.

“You asked me once, Piper, why we don’t talk about the Titan war, why we say that your sister died a hero, and I told you that it is hard for all of us still alive and recovering,” Annabeth spoke, snapping the attention to her.

“We found out when we were young that demigods of the lesser Gods felt neglected, unwanted, and found the call of the Titans a much better option to the Gods,” she continued. “We had our own friends turn on us, sacrifice themselves with the thought that the Gods used us as pawns on their board of life, and that the Titans would appreciate us.

“I can’t count the number I fought against in that final battle, I don’t want to know the number that Percy had-had to,” she choked and stopped.

“Kill,” Percy ended, tone dead and final. A quiet reverence fell upon the group, as Percy comforted Annabeth.

“So, Titans equal evil, got it,” Leo clapped once in an effort to dispel the heavy mood. “But I got to know, what was the most awesome thing you did on these summer quests?”

“Uh,” Percy blinked, thrown by the question and looked at Annabeth with a clear question in his eyes.

“Really, Seaweed head, you don’t know?” she giggled.

“I mean, there was a lot,” he exclaimed. “I kinda liked the matching streaks of grey hair.” 

“Of all the things, you choose the most painful experience?” she rolled her eyes.

“What?” He questioned as his girlfriend smacked his arm. “It was cool!”

“That quest wasn’t even during the summer,” Annabeth exhaled, exasperated and amused.

“But it felt like any other summer by the end of it,” Percy defended himself.

“Just because every summer ends with a stupid quest deadline to meet or else the world ends,” Annabeth threw up her hands. “That does not mean that quest happened during the summer.”

“Jason, do you think we should get matching strips of hair? Maybe we should make it blue,” Piper beamed at her boyfriend.

“Not as cool,” Percy shook his head with gravitas. 

Percy ducked as a piece of food flew at him from the other side of the table, laughing the whole while. Soon, the mess hall dissolved into random bits of conversation, picking up and forgetting the heavy talk earlier. Piper watched as Percy slyly egged Jason into a debate about how the ocean is better than the sky. Annabeth, Leo, and Frank were talking about Feastus, as Hazel watched in interest. 

Her thoughts swirled around and soon, as the conversation dragged the other boys into it’s grips, Piper poked Annabeth. Something in her eyes must have cued the girl to what she wanted to know. Or, as Piper truly thought, the girl was somehow psychic and could read minds.

“I can’t read minds, Piper,” Annabeth chuckled.

“You just did, how did you know I was thinking that if not?” the brunette girl exclaimed.

“Honestly, your face is an open book,” she smirked.

“Okay, then I won’t ask you,” Piper pouted.

“If that’s what you want,” Annabeth smiled and turned back to the conversation, leaning against her boyfriend.

 

**Author's Note:**

> This is a short dabble of my typical stuff. I had this one done for quite a while, but decided against posting it. As a one shot, it is complete. It is, however, part of all of my Percy Jackson fandom one shots. There is at least one more coming along, a post Giants talk between Annabeth and Piper. 
> 
> For those of you who don't know, or haven't read any of my other Percy Jackson works, I am a firm believer that Uncle Rick dumbed down Percy and Annabeth far too much in the Heroes of Olympus. I get the general idea of not wanting to have OP characters, but you built them as remarkably powerful. How in the world are they seen as so weak they are almost detrimental to the team? It's not really logical. 
> 
> In this case, I wanted to point out the fact that Percy and Annabeth are more aware of what is at stake and on the line than anyone else on the Argo II (other than maybe Coach Hedge, but he's busy swatting away poor birds he thinks are monsters). I feel like everyone, while stressed, did not take it quite as seriously, nor had quite the same understanding of what it meant to have demigods killing one another quite like our favorite pair. Just another way to point out the difference in them that has nothing to do with physical power.
> 
> I hope that you guys end up liking it! Thank you for reading. :)


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